Margao: Even as COVID deaths are on the rise with the Hospicio staff having to handle four COVID related death cases in 48 hours starting August 24, it is a fact that the old mortuary at Monte Hill cannot take the load any longer
With only 20 cabinets and most of them occupied there is a pressing need for the mortuary at the New District Hospital to start. While the GSIDC has been handed over to the Health Services, the mortuary, with about 80 cabinets, is not yet ready to function. Dr Madhu Ghodkirekar Associate professor at GMC currently posted in Hospicio and in charge of the mortuary at the new district hospital said “ We cannot start in haste. There are still things to be done before the mortuary is fully functional. If bodies start de-composing who do we answer to?”
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The 80 cabinet mortuary at the New District hospital will solve the problems. However, just as the work was supposed to be completed the Covid-19 pandemic struck and has sent all the works to a grinding halt. The table used for post mortal examinations is awaited to start the facility. Without all the equipment and facilities put in place the GSIDC can’t even hand the facility to the Hospicio.
All this has resulted in sending bodies to the GMC mortuary regularly. On the evening of Monday there were 3 cabinets left in Monte Hill mortuary which only goes to tell that there is a tight rope walk in managing the facilities
Persons who had gone to the mortuary lately told that the condition there was very shocking. One Dixon Vaz told Herald “When I went to keep the dead body in the morgue of a deceased whose children were overseas and will take a few days to do the final rites, I noticed that the doors are broken and are closed with the support of bamboos and wooden planks”.
“I asked the staff who informed them that they have reported the issue to their superiors but still nothing has been done. Also, there is a bad odour inside the room due to poor ventilation,” said Dixon.
Above all the problem has aggravated as the MMC and the Police have been lethargic to complete the process and dispose of the bodies they store as part of medico legal and other cases. The Medical Superintendent told that the MMC and the Police have to take the bodies soon after their process is completed as there is a pressing need for empty cabinets on a daily basis. She said that she has written to the Police and MMC yet again to dispose of the bodies soon to vacate the cabinets in the mortuary.
